James Madison on Government
1751–1836 United States
← All quotes by James Madison
9 quotes
But what is Government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?
Federalist Papers (1787)
If men were angels, no government would be necessary.
Federalist Papers (1787)
The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.
No government, any more than an individual, will long be respected without being truly respectable; nor be truly respectable without possessing a certain portion of order and stability.
Federalist Papers (1787)
Wherever the real power in a Government lies, there is the danger of oppression.
Mr. MADISON considered the popular election of one branch of the National Legislature as essential to every plan of free Government.
The Debates in the Federal Convention (1787)
The free system of government we have established is so congenial with reason, with common sense, and with a universal feeling, that it must produce approbation and a desire of imitation, as avenues may be found for truth to the knowledge of nations.
[I]n proportion as slavery prevails in a State, the Government, however democratic in name, must be aristocratic in fact.
A popular Government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy, or perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.